Played as usual over Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, this was the second of the Rommel's Route to Verdun series (see the first one here) and was another recce mission.
The field of Mars. Hill 325 is to the right (east). The trees are open woods and the bits of old towels and doormat are fields of waist-high crops. Rommel had to locate at least one French unit and exit 8+ men in good order from the West edge of the table.
Rommel leading his platoon HQ and 2 rifle sections. Again, I had reduced the figure numbers in the book to make the game more manageable. We used A Fistful Of Lead. Pete was again Rommel, with Martin and Simon (the latter unavoidably absent on Tuesday) as the section leaders.
The figures were all metal castings, some of considerable antiquity. I did notice that some of the German figures are looking rather tatty so maybe it's time for a repaint.
The French. A 7-man rifle section under Sgt. John and a detached 3-man patrol under Cpl. Jerry.
Jerry's guys were in the north...
...and the main section on the SW. All were dug in and due to heavy fog no French troops were placed on the table until they were spotted or fired. Visibility was a mere 10 inches!
The Germans surging heroically over the crest of Hill 325.
Martin's section in the distance on the right flank, Simon's closest to the camera. Plt HQ in the middle.
The Germans were under pressure to move quickly and duly did so. Soon a brisk firefight was underway between the French section and (mostly) Martin's section. Meanwhile Jerry's chaps had cracked open the wine ration.
While Martin took on the French, Simon's section (led in his absence by Pete) pressed forward
Yellow markers are shaken, small red are wounds, large reds are KIA. Oh dear.
Rommel directed the firefight in person...
...ensuring the safe exit of Simon's entire section.
Leaving Martin to deal with the French, Rommel and his HQ team rushed forward and successfully exited to the west. A clear, is not inexpensive German victory. “But what” I hear you ask, “about Jerry and his gallant 3-man patrol in the north?” The final score there was: enemy spotted - nil. Two men dead drunk and one dancing in front of the trench, underpants on head, singing lewd about the Kaiser. It’s going to be a long war.
Speaking of the horrors of war....
8 comments:
That wasa great game- i really enjoyed it.
Cheers,
Pete.
Reading these accounts and looking at the pictures suggests a possible use for a small number but wide range of Crimean war figures of obscure provenance that I have acquired in recent years. I've been wondering what to do with them...
Wonderful looking game! If you have the figures and fancy fielding the orders of battle as written, Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles would probably handle it nicely. There are some differences - obviously - to the standard sized game, with the benefit that you can field more figures on the table if you wish to, without exponentially increasing the time a game takes for a small skirmish.
That was a great game, thanks for putting it on. I'm still impressed that FFoL copes with such large numbers of figures.
Pete
And another triumph for young Rommel!
Archduke Piccolo
That sounds like a plan!
John Y
I do have the Bigger battles book but I'm not convinced that more figures would have added anything to this game.
Martin Rapier
This was quite a big game for FFoL - 29 figures!
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